VacationSelector
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka
The harbour seen from above, Marmaris
MarmarisThe harbour seen from above

Photos: Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Marmaris by Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Durban or Marmaris?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Durban for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Durban’s own page.

Choose Marmaris for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Marmaris’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Durban and Marmaris are level on 80.
Food & drink. Durban 60, Marmaris 40: Durban leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Durban 38, Marmaris 18: Durban leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Durban 40, Marmaris 60: Marmaris leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Durban 68, Marmaris 72: Marmaris leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Durban 38, Marmaris 65: Marmaris leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Durban 60, Marmaris 62: Marmaris leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Durban 20, Marmaris 55: Marmaris leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Durban 42, Marmaris 38: Durban leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Durban 72, Marmaris 62: Durban leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Durban 40, Marmaris 12: Durban leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Durban 30, Marmaris 50: Marmaris leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Durban and Marmaris.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Durban
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Marmaris
51match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Durban in July

23 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Marmaris in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DurbanMarmaris

Where the figures come from

Marmaris's temperatures are measured 49 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Marmaris has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre). Marmaris: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (48.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDurbanMarmaris
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageTurkish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m7 m
Main airportKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)49 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDurbanMarmaris
City population595,06197,818
People per km²2,634111
Museums within 10 km11
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Durban or Marmaris somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.